Sunday, July 24, 2016

This Day in New York Yankees History 7/24: A Rod and Varitek Fight it Out

One of the best and longest rivalry in Major League Baseball is the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. This rivalry was especially heated in the early and mid-2000's as both teams were perennial winners. These two teams met 27 times a season and ended up fighting for the American League pennant more times than not.

The rivalry continued on this day in 2004 when then Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo hit Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the previous night's hero with a game winning home run, with a pitch. A Rod stared down Arroyo as he went down to first base causing the Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek to get in Rodriguez's face. Varitek pushed his glove into A Rod's face that initiated a benches clearing brawl between the two teams.

Also on this day in 1999 the Yankees routed the Cleveland Indians on the way to their biggest margin of victory in 46 seasons with the score of 21-1. Chili Davis would go 5-6 with six RBI in the game in the Bronx.

Also on this day in 1983 the Kansas City Royals and the Yankees played in what is widely considered to be the Pine Tar Game. George Brett's ninth inning home run was disallowed when the umpires ruled that there was too much pine tar on his bat. American League president Lee McPhail would overrule the decision and the game would resume on August 18th. The Royals would ultimately beat the Yankees 4-3.

Also on this day in 1978 Billy Martin resigned as the manager of the Yankees. George Steinbrenner would replace Martin with Bob Lemon and Lemon would lead the Yankees to their second consecutive World Series title.

Finally on this day in 1926 Gehrig stole home for the second time this season. Gehrig would steal 102 bases in his career and 15 of those was a steal of home plate. I'm not entirely sure if that's a record or anything but it's still an awesome stat.

Oh and also on this day in 2014 the New York Yankees acquired Chris Capuano from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for cash considerations. Yeah I don’t care either.